Alf Tupper (Character) - Comic Vine Alf Tupper 2 appearances No recent wiki edits to this page. Alf Tupper is an 18 year old working class young man who has worked as a welder, day laborer and plumber, who apparently lived off fish & chips, but whose passion is running. His efforts on the track however are usually hampered by a succession of posh upper class twits who resent having a common “guttersnipe” on their tracks, and ready to do anything, mostly cheating, to show him just how worthless he is. Of course for over 50 years in The Rover and later The Victor , Alf not only showed them who was the better runner, but the better person as he was often late for track meets due to him stopping and helping people in need. General Information The Tough of the Tracks Publisher Close This edit will also create new pages on Comic Vine for: Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

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Thanks for continuing to improve the site. Your changes are now live. Our robot math gave you points for this submission. Alf Tupper – British Comics Miscellany runn01.jpg Which is refusing to post in clickable thumbnail mode For anybody who can’t be bothered to scroll around the image, it is an article about a runner called John Tarrant who throughout the 50’s became infamous as “The Ghost Runner”. He had been banned from competing in athletics tournaments in Britain due to having once been paid for sport – as a boxer when he was young and desperate. Despite this he would pop up at major events anyway, leaping the barriers to join a race just as it was starting. It sounds just like a story from a comic… In fact it sounds just like two stories from a comic! Possibly the most famous athletics stories ever written. Just look at this: Does that remind you of anybody? From The Hornet via the Great British Comics book… phew The one and only Wilson! This great character first appeared in The Wizard in July 1943. It chronicled the story of this mysterious athlete who became known when he leapt into a race, until then a foregone conclusion, and trounced the opposition.

From then onwards he would crop up at different events up and down the country, not so much breaking records as tearing the book to pieces! As you may notice the story is called “The Truth About Wilson”, and what was this truth? It was the fact he was born in 1795 and had lived all those years thanks to a simple life living on the moors, sleeping in a cave and eating various herbal recipes that were actually the elixir of life! At many points throughout the story, chronicled by the journalist W.S.K. Webb, supposedly during the year before World War 2, Wilson would refer to old records from the early 19th century thought to only be legends. He would then set out to break these “impossible” records, which were far in advance of the accepted modern ones – and usually manage it! Of course later it is revealed that he was actually alive when all these supposedly legendary records were set up, without the aid of stopwatches! The Wilson stories were initially “explained away” by the fact that they all took place before World War 2, and so Wilson’s amazing records were “forgotten” because of the war.

But DC Thomson had created a juggernaut and couldn’t just stop at one series. So Wilson, supposedly “last seen” in a burning spitfire over the Channel, returned to “seek champions” in the late 1940’s for Britian’s olympic efforts. After this he discovered a lost Ancient Greek civilisation in Africa and competed in their olympics, before going elsewhere in Africa to compete in a Zulu warlord’s “black olympics”. Still later he made the transition from text stories to comic strips in The Hornet, moving eventually to The Victor. Also in DC Thomson’s more “hard hitting” 80’s comic Spike, he was bought back as the mysterious “man in black”. Readers were going to be let in to his identity and background story only at the end of the serial – however their dads, remembering Wilson from the old days, spoiled it for them after episode 1! However, Wilson is not the only comic strip hero to defy the authorities and take to the track on his own terms. Over in The Rover a story called The Tough of the Track began in 1949.

This featured Alf Tupper, a much more down to earth character who worked as a welder and ate cod n’ chips! This could be Alf Tupper! (Except he did reach the Olympics eventually) Alf, too, was thrown out of professional athletics. But his fault was to catch out an upper-class cheat, and then to be too quick with his fists. Again from the later comic strip. Alf Tupper also first appeared in text stories. And he also decided to join in a race uninvited, and “ran ’em” all! Alf also had a long life. He started in 1949, but I have issues of The Victor from the late 80’s where he’s still going strong – and there’s also stories of his apparent childhood which is clearly set in the 70’s! The ageing patterns only comic characters (and James Bond) can manage! The final Alf Tupper story didn’t appear in a comic, but in a newspaper. It was 1992 and the Victor’s days were already numbered, the paper featured a short serialised strip showing how Alf made it to the Barcelona Olympics and “ran” the best athletes in the world to win gold!

Sadly Victor Tarrant didn’t have such a long life, dying at only 42 of stomach cancer. Like the comic strip stars he perhaps unknowingly emulated (mind you he was a working class lad in the 40’s, could he perhaps have had Wilson tucked away in his subconscious when he decided on his “pitch invasions”? We’ll never know) he was forgotten until a researcher stumbled upon his memoirs. They have finally been published as “The Ghost Runner” by Bill Jones. It is right and proper that such an unstoppable and eccentric character should be remembered. But what of the comic and story-paper versions? These tales entertained generations of readers for decades yet ask the average convention goer at Bristol and they won’t have a clue who you are on about. We have, in the words of Show of Hands, “lost more than we’ll ever know”. Oi DCT, reprint this! Alf Tupper - Tough of the Track Pete Sutherland, the definitive Tupper artist Editors note : When the Tough of the Track first appeared in Rover comic in 1949, it was the story that gathered in the reader & not the single 'title illustration' on each episode.

DC Thomson later took the Rover stories & 're-cycled' them in their new venture, The Victor, but bought them to life with Comic strip illustrations. Pete Sutherland was employed as a 'staff artist' & luckily for us, they gave him The Tough of the Track to illustrate. His drawings are, for me at least, & I suspect many many others, the definitive depiction of this fabulous character. Its high time that his genius was publicly recognised, as for too long, information about him has been almost impossible to come by. Hopefully this page redresses that slightly & will ensure that his name lives on thanks to the power of the internet. Many many thanks to Pete's son & daughter, Paul & Susan, for putting together this lovely piece about their Father. Peter Sutherland was born in 1923 in the Leicestershire village of Somerby. He was always fascinated by art and began to hone his own drawing and painting skills at a very early age. By his teens, his drawing abilities were outstanding. His service in the REME during the Second World war was largely spent with a pencil or brush in his hand; he hardly saw a gun fired in anger.

The powers that be were far keener on him producing posters for camp entertainments than aiming weapons. One of the major outcomes of the war, artistically, was the proliferation of American style comic books. Peter was determined to get into this new art genre. He sent in artwork samples to DC Thomson, the major comic publishers, who immediately set him to work. From that time he was awash with scripts to draw. After the war he married Peggy, a Scots girl from St Andrews. They had two children, Paul and Susan. When first married, they lived in Broughty Ferry, near the Scottish headquarters of DC Thomson in Dundee. Here Peter worked in an office full of comic strip artists, having some of the happiest days of his artistic career. He then decided to ‘go freelance’, and moved back down to Leicestershire, where he worked from scripts. He sent the completed Indian ink on board artwork by post to the DC Thomson offices in Fleet Street. Through the 1950s he worked on Kit Carson comic books. This American frontiersman and hero was ideally suited to Peter’s outstanding ability to draw action scenes – particularly featuring horses – a notoriously difficult skill to master.

In the 1960s and 1970s Peter worked on many scripts in the expanding range of comics on the market. The Victor comic was always his main home, but he also worked on the Hornet, drawing characters like ‘The Big Palooka’, a bowler hat wearing Scotland Yard detective assigned to work with a US police force. ‘Mike Fink’, the American raft trader was another popular creation. He was also responsible for a host of other stories among the DC Thomson comic firmament. Peter started drawing Alf Tupper in the early 1960s, and was still drawing him just before his death in 1977. Alf was always a special character for Peter. If there could be a bond between an artist and his creation, then here one surely was. His visualisation of this backstreet runner breathed life into a simple storyline. Alf was lifted far beyond the given outline script. He had emotions. His body conveyed joy and dejection. His face was a readable human face. Alf was made to live for many of his followers each week in a way which few comic characters ever do. When Alf “ran ‘em”, we all shared his joy.

When Peter died he left a rich legacy of comic creations, and with the knowledge he had given a great deal of joy to many devoted comic followers. Alf Tupper - Tough of the Track March 23rd – April 6th – The Tough of the Track – Re hashed storyline from The Rover No. 1740 - November 1st 1958 with a different ending. Alf arrives in France having been selected as reserve for Great Britain in a cross country international fixture in Aubigny. He does not believe he should be reserve but travels with the team ( mostly Granton Hall men, with Commander Churcher as Team Manager ) anyway. He disagrees with the team captains plan to run as a team & not allow anyone to 'go for it', but is only reserve so goes along with things. Then he meets a lone American University runner who tells Alf that the race is open to individual entries as well as teams. Alf puts in his entry so as not to waste the trip. In the British team is Phil Rakes-Tyler described as a 'snobbish champion steeplechaser' & one of Alf's sworn enemies.

After checking into a 'posh' hotel ( I tend to think that Alf would have regarded sleeping in a Water Trough as 'too posh' ) & falling foul of Rakes_Tyler's criticism of his table manners, Alf wanders off into the local village where he spies a local lad working in a garage welding an engine block. Clearly ( he is a foreigner after all ! ) doing it all wrong, Alf shows him how it should be done & makes friends with the proprietor 'Poppa Hartman' who suggests that Alf 'comes back, no ?'. Back at the hotel, Rakes-Tyler announces that Alf has entered individually which means he might 'rob' one of the British team of vital team race points if he beats anyone. Alf points out caustically that as he is reserve, all the others must be better than him, so its not an issue. Commander Churcher lays down the law & banishes Alf from the Hotel much to Rakes-Tylers amusement. Alf goes back to Poppa Hartman & works for him until race day receiving bed, board & lots of food – no chips, this is France – from Mrs Hartmans kitchen.

Alf gets up early to see the 'Flying Finn' Vuurmi, practising on the course. He decides that the Finns tactics are going to be 'go for it ' at the front, none of this namby pamby running as a team. Alf resolves to get to the first bend first as the course narrows that & he wants to be in front of Vuurmi at that time. Rakes-Tyler falls & twists his ankle while training for the big day & the team need Alf to run in his place, but of course have told him not to return. They fail to find Alf at his new residence & resolve to keep his place open until the last minute. Of course, after a long wait Alf arrives & graciously agrees to put the problems of the trip behind him & run for the British team. But of course, he pretends not to hear the captain call out the race tactics & sets off in persuit of the Finn at the fornt of the field. For three laps Alf & Vuurmi battle it out, until Vuurmi falls behind, a beaten man. Unfortunately, Alf has used up all his reserves of energy & gets swallowed up by the chasing pack.

Alf's friend Reg Fry comes in third & Alf battles home in twelfth place to secure the winning points for Great Britain in the team race. Commander Churcher admits he was wrong to regard Alf as undisciplined & accepts that if it were not for Alf running Vuurmi 'into the ground', GB would never have beaten the Finnish team. So Alf's tactics were vindicated ! Alf then misses the plane home because he thinks 15:00 is Five O'Clock, & has to hitch hike across France. He enters a race in Remy in France, wins & gets befriended by the locals who feed him ( still no Chips ) & ask him to represent them in the local 'grudge match' against the neighbouring town of Vermont. In return for Victory the mayor offers him a boat trip home to England in his brothers boat. No sign of Alf eating snails, but you never know... 1965 Jan 16th – THE TOUGH ON THE YANKEE TRACKS – Alf in America !

( thanks to Stewart Morrison for this detail ) 1968 – Victor Book for Boys Alf gets a race against the World top milers from Scandinavia & USA, but they are jetlagged & he is tired from working the night shift due to Ike's laziness. The race is slow, Alf loses & everyone is left deflated. That is, until Alf gets a 'Fish & Chip fuelled' idea to race them a week later, before they are due to fly home. Its a fast race & everyone is happy as Alf wins & breaks the world record. 1969 – Victor Book for Boys Alf races against the Rakovian champion, Fedor Oranski at the White City. The race is a dead heat so Alf travels to Rakovia for a re-match. Unfortunately, on the way there he has his wallet pinched so has to stowaway on board an aircraft. Upon arrival at Grovic (as you will recall,the Rakovian capital) he gets arrested as a spy and is about to be interrogated by the secret police when he delivers a punch to the Rakovian Colonel's nose ("Keep you hands to yourself baldy!").

In a timely intervention Alf is revealed to be the famous British runner, given a compensatory plate of fish and chips (darned resourceful these Eastern Block chaps) and is rushed to the state sports stadium in the nick of time to run against Oranski in the 1500 metres – Thanks to 'Blogger' from forum for this detail. 1970 Oct 10th – The Tough of the Track – Alf forms his own Athletics Club to take on Greystone Harriers. Alf is disgruntled when he is left out of the Greystone Harriers team for the Clebbury Road Relay. He decides to enter with his own team made up of boxers from the local club. He trains them & the team look set to do well, until Alf's old friend Clem Johnson, local reporter, tells him that his entry has been rejected because his new team “Tuppers Trotters” are not an affiliated club. “Nuts to that” says Alf ! His team can run unofficially because the race is being held on public roads & the papers are full of the news when race day arrives.

The “Trotters' look to be in bad shape & are well behind until the 5th leg when Alf's collegue “Tig” runs a stormer to bring the Trotters into 5th place with only Alf left to run on the final leg. Inevitably Alf overhauls Greystone Harriers, Athletic Club de Paris & the hated 'Granton Hall' posh blokes to win ( unofficially of course ) the Relay. “You can keep your blooming medals, everyone knows that my blokes were the real winners”. Alf is a hero to the Boxing club members, as the race generates excellent publicity for them & they receive offers of fights all over the country. 1973 June 23rd – issue 644 - “The Rough Tough boyhood of Alf Tupper” – A 'prequel' series. Alf, an orphan, is 12 years old & has been sent to an “Industrial School” called Thorn House, a magistrate having decided that he was in need of 'care & attention'. Discipline problems arise due to the Head teachers view that pupils should be given total freedom. Alf falls foul of the school bully Butch Harden & his gang.

A roof top protest by Butch causes the Head to sack the staff who have Alf 'under their wing', giving him welding lessons & allowing him to train for his running. Alf is punished for fighting by being banned from running & welding for 6 months. He runs away into the night... July 7th – issue 646 - “The Rough Tough boyhood of Alf Tupper” – continues 1974 January ? - “Alf Tuppers Castle” – Mentioned on ComicsUK forum. The correspondent suggests that the storyline related to Alf's boyhood again October - issue 764 - “Rough Tough Summer for Alf Tupper” Again, this is noted on the ComicsUK web site forum, as being concerned with Alf's boyhood, but the date is only approximate. 1975 – Victor Summer Special - Alf Brings Home The Bacon ( Thanks to Colin Noble ) 13 yr old Alf goes to Summer Camp, at Bellfield Castle, paid for by the council. He is not happy, as the place is paid for by the council, which he sees as charity. He uses the week as a training week to improve his running, but runs foul of two local yobs.

The yobs taunt him as he easily win the Schoolboy’s Mile and decides to run in the Open Mile, where first prize is a huge haunch of ham. The yobs pair off and deliberately stop the local veteran, Harland, from winning by ‘nudging’ him, so that they can win the ham and make some money out of it. Alf, being pre-warned, decides to tuck in behind the pair and gets ready to thwart their plan, by being ready to catch the remaining lout. After a terrific burst of speed, Alf pips the remaining lout to the post and wins the race. The ham? He donates that to Mr Harland, so that Harland can continue his annual practice of donating the ham to the local old folks home, thus allowing Alf to call it all square with the council paying for his place on the camp. 1977 September 17th - “He's in the army now” - Originally the title for the ninth series, from the 'Rover'. Alf gets hurt in an accident with some tear gas & burns his hands.

He runs in a 200m race & comes second, then wins the 1500 & anchors the 4x400 relay team to victory despite his hand injuries, by holding the baton in his mouth. Great storyline ! 1980 – No story in this series, but Alf is being 'touted' as the new 'host' of “Tuppers Talk-in ” an advertised readers letters page – see stories index for details. ( see this link 'Alf Tupper confession' where a student confesses to 'hoodwinking' Alf into giving him a prize :-) 1985 Victor Summer Special ( Thanks to Colin Noble ) The Tough Of The Track Alf is running the 1500m at Crystal Palace and seems to have the race sewn up until a complete unknown steams past him to take first place! The winner is Christopher Good, who is being trained scientifically by Professor Martin. Alf is invited to Farleigh House to see how the training is undertaken, but the whole life of the athlete is dictated by the computer, down to even the diet. On a meal of lettuce and carrots, Alf is not best pleased!

And again, when he races Good, he is beaten to the tape. Alf, a worried man, heads back to Greystone and wonders if he is past it. However, a familiar aroma reminds Alf that silicon is not the only thing to be chipped! At the next meeting of Alf and Good, Alf storms off into the lead, and Good is forced to keep with him, but the murderous pace that Alf sets is too much and Alf proves that it was fish and chips that he needed not silicon chips! 1986 Victor Summer special ( Thanks to Colin Noble ) The Tough Of The Track Alf sees an article in a local newspaper, claiming that a Samuel Granger ran around Hillstone Lake, a distance of 5,123 metres (3.1 miles) in 13 mins 38 seconds in 1920. Samuel Granger sets up a prize fund to be donated to the charity the runner, capable of equalling or bettering his time, nominates. This prize is offered as no-one believes Samuel’s assertion that he saw a monster on that day!

Ken Waters, an instructor at Ashdale Youth Centre is trying to train his runners to win the prize, as it is needed to carry out repairs to the Youth Centre. Alf is more than happy to donate the money to the Centre, so Ken enlists his fit but not fast enough runners to help Alf beat the record. Despite his best efforts, Alf is still 30 secs off the time, but decides to give it a go anyway. On the day, he goes flat out, but still is outside the time needed, until a shape appears from out of the water… A monster appears! Alf loses all signs of tiredness and goes headlong for the tapes, breaking the record by 5 seconds! The monster is nothing more than a stunt pulled by the young runners to help Alf beat the record. Alf then sees that Samuel set the record in April 1920, on the first to be precise ! 1987 Victor Summer Special ( Thanks to Colin Noble ) The Tough Of The Track Alf has a good night’s training and celebrates with a portion of Sam Kessick’s best fish and chips.

In true Alf fashion, he scoffs the lot and throws the papers away, where he is accosted and told off by ‘Battling Betty’, a local no-nonsense WPC, for littering. As a result of Betty’s lecture and then treading on a piece of broken glass, Alf becomes a convert. The broken glass lays Alf up for several days, but once again he is fit to run and sees a pair of yobs kicking a glass bottle about and smash it against a lamp-post. Incensed, Alf makes the yobs, who are initially reluctant, to pick up the broken glass. On the day of the race, Alf is steaming ahead, but is distracted by a flying piece of litter. He grabs the litter and gets back on track to win the race! 1988 Victor Summer Special ( Thanks to Colin Noble ) One off feature - “Your Chance to be a Tough” Stretching & warm-up excercises recommended by Alf himself. Strange really, as I would have thought Alf would be the type to completely 'pooh pooh' warm-up excercises, in favour of yet another newspaper full of chips instead ! Same edition...

The Tough Of The Track Alf has a new fan, a wheelchair bound athletics fan, Tony Black. Alf sees an advert for a holiday cruise. He offers to win it for Tony and his dad. As he lines up for the first heat, Alf hears a familiar name, but can’t place it, until the final, when he realises 3 runners, Wragg, Carter and Henderson work a scam to run the race so that they can win all the prizes. Alf is tripped, boxed-in and elbowed, but they still can’t keep him down. Alf wins the race, only to let rip and smack the luckless trio for their cheating ways on the track. As a result of the ‘boxing lesson’, the free prize is withdrawn, but Alf goes on his own cruise to earn enough money to send Tony and his Dad on a Spanish holiday ! 1990 Summer Special edition - One off story - “Gritting his teeth & heading for the tape, its the Tough of the Track”. A 'bulked-up' Alf Tupper is pictured on the cover 1991 Summer Special edition – One off story - “The Tough visits Crystal Palace”.

1992 Last ever episode of “Tough of the Track” ? According to Colin Noble this was published in the Sunday Post – a Scottish newspaper owned by DC Thomson – in which Alf travels to Seoul for the 1992 Olympic Games. Alf had run in the Olympic trials but had been 'nobbled' by the Uncle of the Grimston borthers whom Alf did not like one bit. Luckily for Alf, the third person selected injured himself & Alf was in the team. Alf receives an apology from the Grimston brothers at the Olympic team members meeting & grudgingly accepts it. He informs the chairman of the team that he intends to run a race that weekend at a meeting held to raise money for the Greystone Youth Club. Alf is told in no uncertain terms not to run as it will risk his Olympic place. Alf tells waiting TV crews at the stadium, that he doesnt care what the chairman says , he is going to run as he gave his word. The press highlight the story on the front pages but Alf refuses to back down despite requests from his physio Dave Chance. The chairman reiterates that if Alf runs, he will forfeit his place in the team for Barcelona.

In the race, Alf wins but is accidentally 'spiked' at the finish. He hobbles off the track. But persuades the management to allow him to go to Barcelona. In his heat, he feels terrible pain from his injured foot but refuses to tell anyone that he is injured except his physio Dave. Dave advises Alf to pull-out with the injury as his foot has swollen too much for Alf to get his spikes on. Alf takes a gamble when the room cleaner offers him a 'miracle' potion to clear-up his foot injury. Alf applies the potion but is instantly in agony. Alf removes his spikes as he lines up for the semi-final to stop them rubbing on his swollen foot. He runs an easy race allowing Grimston to win but qualifies for the final vowing to beat Grimston for the Gold medal. You can guess what happens after that :-) The Hornet – early 70's An interesting piece of information from the message forum on ComicsUK, suggests that a story featuring Alf Tupper, together with Bernard Briggs* ( Sporting Scrap dealer ), called 'King of Scrapland'. Appeared in the Hornet comic at this time.

* Bernard (Bouncing) Briggs was a powerful young fellow who earned his living as a General Dealer, who appeared in the Wizard, Hotspur & Hornet comics. He had a yard of his own in Slagton, and he rode a motor bike with a sidecar made from an old bathtub. He was a keen amateur sportsman taking up various sports including: Baseball, Boxing, Football, Ice Hockey, Rugby League, Tennis and Wrestling. Bernard excelled at all the sports he tried. ( courtesy of Vic Whittle ) Alf Tupper | Tumblr Alf Tupper Grid View List View The observer is a prince enjoying his incognito wherever he goes. The lover of life makes the whole world into his family, just as the lover of the fair sex creates his from all the lovely women he has found, from those that could not be found, and those who are impossible to find, just as the picture-lover in an enchanted world of dreams painted on canvas. Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life, 1863 opening words in The Emperor of Paris, CS Richardson Reblog T is for ...

Tough of the Track The comic-book hero Alf Tupper – ‘The Tough of the Track’ – is no stranger to this blog. Appearing in the pages of Rover, and its successor publication, Victor, Alf dominated the fictional world of international middle-distance running from the 1950s to the 1990s. With his distinctive jutting square jaw and iconic tatty vest, Alf embodied a ruthless, competitive streak, manifest in the habitual defiant challenge to competitors: ‘I’ll run him’. The stories depict Tupper as essentially a loner, operating on the margins of the labour market – which commonly requires him to take on a rush wielding job that is completed perilously close to the start of an important athletics event, where he would often represent Greystone Harriers. This was a favoured formula employed in storylines, which typically would climax in a race but not before our protagonist has overcome a problem of some kind – usually work-related and requiring two or three days of strenuous labour. Despite the longevity of the comic strip, Alf doesn’t age. His staple diet consists of fish and chips.

He is the antithesis of what Richard Askwith terms ‘big running’ – his running kit is moth-eaten, and unlike most of his wealthier, ‘toffee-nosed’ rivals (whom he displays a blatant disregard) he doesn’t own a tracksuit. Indeed underpinning most of the scenarios is an element of class-consciousness, painting the athletics world as ridden with inequalities and unfairness. In this respect Alf is depicted as an unlikely hero, whose success is borne out of an intrinsic passion for running, and a tremendous desire to win. On the occasions when he isn’t victorious, Tupper embodies the ethos of fair play, never making an excuse and always congratulating the winner as simply being the best on the day. This again serves to contrast our protagonist with his snooty, upper-class competitors who habitually lack basic decencies and are ungracious in defeat. Interestingly, despite being a fictional character, Alf was adored by many real-life athletes, some of whom accredit their interest in running to the working class comic-book anti-hero. The infamous Ron Hill, for example, was inspired to start running after reading about Alf’s exploits. The European and Commonwealth champion, Brendan Foster, is also said to be a fan.

During my own childhood I was a devout reader of comics, although admittedly the Beano was my comic of choice. That said I did accumulate an ample collection of Victor annuals, which is where I was first introduced to the Welder from the northern town of Greystone, and my own interest in the sport was kindled. On day #21 of Juneathon I had to make do with a fifteen minute kettlebell workout. I had desires on going for a short run around Sherwood but the gods conspired against me (along with having to clear some of the vastly overgrown garden and a mountain of ironing) hence doing some weights whilst preparing tea. Back to clocking up the mileage tomorrow. Reblog A is for ... athletics Athletics is the nebulous label appropriated by Sport England for the purposes of their annual Active People Survey, which is designed to measure participation rates. Running in its numerous guises (in this case running track, running cross-country, road running, ultra-marathon running, and jogging) are all encompassed under this umbrella term, along with the more traditional conception of athletics track-and-field, conjuring images of Alf Tupper resplendent in his Greystone Harriers club vest.

According to APS data released in January of this year, participation has been steadily increasing with the number of people taking part in athletics for at least 30 minutes a week, rising from 1.4 million in 2005/06 to 2.016 million. With the 14-16 age bracket included, the figure reaches 2.288 million. Of course such crude conceptions belie the complexity of running, its multiplicity of meanings, and the actual experiences of ‘doing’ running. Far from lumping together the running community as a homogenous mass, increasing scholarly interest has for example developed profiles and typologies of runners, which may include a number of characteristics, such as: level, intensity, frequency, location, organisational context, and motivations. In stark contrast it is possible to classify running as an allegedly mundane and pointless activity, which amounts to little more than putting one foot in front of the other. Day #1 of Juneathon: a grey, wet and blustery 6.2 mile foot commute home from work. Remind me, this is supposed to be summer, right?

Alf Tupper - Wikipedia, Photos and Videos Alf Tupper NEXT GO TO RESULTS [51 .. 100] WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE Jump to: navigation , search Alf Tupper Alf Tupper is a British comic strip, created by Bill Blaine (probably a pseudonym for William Blaine, head of DC Thomson comics), written by Gilbert Lawford Dalton . It stars a working class, "hard as nails" runner, whose adventures appeared in The Rover from 1949 and then The Victor , British boys' comics from D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd . His adventures appeared over almost a 40-year period, until 1992, under the title The Tough of the Track. Many artists have written and drawn his stories, including Pete Sutherland, during his run in The Victor. [1] [2] [3] In April 2014 Alf Tupper returned in a monthly one-page comic-strip feature in the international athletics magazine Athletics Weekly . [4] Contents 5 External links Alf Tupper's storyline and character[ edit ] Whatever his job and wherever it was located, Alf was the eternal underdog.

[5] Regarded as a "guttersnipe" by the posh blokes from the Amateur Athletic Association , he was at his best the day after a night on late shift, lifting heavy objects and getting little sleep. His journey to the track (often White City ) almost invariably involved falling asleep on the train and missing his stop. Sometimes his tardiness was caused by skullduggery of the worst kind by "stuck-up" rich boys from a university somewhere, but usually it was because he could not stop himself from rescuing people in distress or just generally being a selfless chap. Regardless of this, he always got there in the nick of time and, having just finished his fish and chips, went on to win the championships or even, in "end of series" stories, break the world record for the mile and utter his famous catchphrase "I ran 'em all!” Vic Whittle writes: Alf Tupper was 18 years of age when he first appeared in Rover in 1949 and he continued his adventures in Victor in the early 1960s. He lived with his Aunt Meg in Anchor Alley, Greystone.

The house had one room upstairs and one room downstairs; Alf's bed was a mattress on the kitchen floor. He was employed as a welder working in Ike Smith's welding shop which was located under a railway arch, his wages were £1 5s (£1.25p) per week of which he paid his Aunt £1.2s.6d (£1.12½p) for rent. This meant he had 2/6d (12½p) for himself. Following a bust up with his Aunt Meg, he moved into Ike Smith's welding shop, sleeping on a mattress by his workbench. Alf joined the Greystone Harriers paying a subscription fee of half a guinea ; he was only a member of the Harriers for three weeks and was instructed to return his membership card by Bob Richards the Honorary Secretary, following an ontrack fight with Vic Mason in the 440 yards at the Greystone Harriers Sports meeting. Alf's staple diet was fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. [6] Appearances[ edit ] The 1950s (The Rover – No.

1303) version of Alf was variously, a millwright at Greystone Aviation Factory and (The Rover – No. 1338) a plumber in the employ of Charlie Chipping of Gas Street, Graystone. The 1968 version of Alf, (in The Victor Book for Boys) is a self-employed welder – "Welding done here" – and is still located under the railway arches in fictional Greystone, a drab town with cobbled streets where heavy industry employs thousands of manual workers. By the 1970s, some of the early 1950s storylines were being re-introduced to a new generation. There was even a 'prequel' series about Alf's "rough tough boyhood" and his struggle with the authorities as an orphan (began in The Victor 0626 dated 17 February 1973). Alf's last published appearance came in the Scottish newspaper, The Sunday Post in 1992 and featured Alf in training for the Barcelona Olympic games . In popular culture[ edit ] UK punk rock band The Boys referred to their producer as "Alf Tupper", as a tribute to their hero.

They used the name on records and in adverts in the music press as a top producer who could do anything.

Question: By what nickname was the comic book character 'Alf Tupper' known?
Answer: 'THE TOUGH OF THE TRACK'